What is epilepsy?

What is epilepsy?
If someone has epilepsy this means that they have repeated seizures.
Seizures are caused by a temporary change in the way someone’s brain
cells work. During a seizure someone might ‘black out’ or have unusual
feelings, thoughts or movements. It usually only lasts for a matter of
seconds or minutes, but in extreme cases it can last longer. After a seizure
the brain cells are able towork as normal. The old name for a seizurewas ‘a
fit’.
Lots of people may have a single seizure during their life, but this does
not mean that they have epilepsy. If someone experiences repeated
seizures, then they may be diagnosed as having epilepsy.
There are many different types of epilepsy. When someone with
epilepsy has a seizure it can be a ‘non-convulsive seizure’. In otherwords, a seizure does not always involve involuntary body movements andwhatwe
might typically think of as ‘fitting’.
A carer of someone with intellectual disabilities and epilepsy who has
epilepsy himself talks about his experience:
I have found post seizure time much worse than seizures. For example a
grand mal attack would be followed by severe headache, painful mouth
(bitten) and confusion for some hours. Auras and feelings after partial
seizures might sound easy to deal with but at a young age I was very
confused by this sort of déjà vu experience, which caused me a lot of
stress and anxiety. I feel that carers need to know more detail about
epilepsy and possibly First Aid if the cared-for person is not able to
explain him or herself. Sometimes there are no known triggers found.
Carers should be encouraged to find out more details about pre, during
and post seizure action that they may need to be aware of.